42 Metric Beers and a Bunch a' Hose Heads

Wino

2007-06-21T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well dudes, I did it. I made my first batch of wine. Katie and I bottled it on Monday, a Riesling that tasted pretty good, a bit watery, but pretty good. It turns out that wine making is WAY easier than beer. No boiling, no chilling, just pouring, mixing and waiting. The kit said it should be ready in 1-3 months, so we're looking forward to trying it then, if it's no good I guess we'll have a lot of bad wine....28 bottles.
In other brewing news, I'm thinking of investing in a propane burner. My fancy big pot that Katie got me for x-mas totally scorches the stove whenever I brew, which is a pain in the butt and looks like crap. So, I have been on a brewing hiatus until the problem can be solved and brewing outside would solve it. I haven't decided whether to go with the cheaper ($50) Turkey fryer style, or the more expensive ($100) but more efficient Hurricane Burner. The nicer one uses about a half as much propane, which will pay off I guess......we'll see how long it takes me to come up with the money, maybe I'll just take out more student loans.....

Making a (Slight) Mess

2007-03-05T15:41:00.000-05:00

I decided to brew a batch of Coffee Stout yesterday. Went to bed last night and didn't see any yeast activity. I woke up this morning to see that the yeast in the carboy were throwing quite a raging party. Kind of like the college kids coming from repressive Catholic upbringings who start the party late and then go overboard. The krausen had burst through my airlock and was bubbling away down the carboy. I have a 6.5 gallon carboy and had 5 gallons of brew, and didn't think I'd have that much activity. I consider myself fortunate that there was no explosion, and after doing some internet sleuthing, rigged up a blowoff tube by connecting the tubing from my siphon to the "out" hole of the bottom plastic portion of the airlock. Stuck the other end of the tube in some water that is no doubt turning into krausenwater as we speak. I don't know whether this will become a regular feature for me or not -- the other batch I brewed had much more controlled activity, so I think I'll give the airlock another shot before giving in to the overflow tube every time. Despite that misadventure, Graham reports that things should be okay.

The wort had a nice color to it, and a fantastic hoppy aroma, surprising for a stout, or at least the stouts I'm used to. I can't tell what the coffee will add to this equation because I haven't added it yet. You can mix the coffee into the batch at one of two points, either at the end of the boil (by throwing the beans into a grain bag) or after the primary fermentation is complete (by brewing a very strong pot of coffee and pouring it in after racking for secondary fermentation). The latter is recommended because if you add the beans at the higher temperature, the coffee flavor will be more bitter, and some of the flavor is lost during the primary fermentation. I didn't add the coffee during the boil for that reason, but I don't think that I'll do a secondary fermentation with this batch, so the coffee will go in with the sugar right before bottling. Any thoughts, dudes? Is more flavor imparted into the beer during a secondary fermentation versus when the sugar is carbonating away? I don't know whether that'll make a difference or not, but it's probably what I'm going to try, if for no other reason than I want to get a second batch going, an IPA recipe from Midwest with a relatively unique type of hop that the guy at the store was excited about. I'll be curious to see if it tastes distinctive or not.

In other beer-making news, look for the mighty Brewers to win the NL Central behind a healthy Ben Sheets this year.

Testing Vermont's Open Container Laws

2007-02-26T22:25:00.000-05:00

Brewed another all grain batch on Saturday with Josh. We have some work to do on our efficiency. Not exactly sure what happened. But I'll let you know how it turns out. It's an ESB.

Anybody got an extra 3Gs?

2007-01-28T23:28:00.000-05:00

1) This thing is awesome. But B) I'm not sure I see the point.

Looks like it would be really fun to figure out how to build something like this, though.

Still trying to figure out how to work a brew day into my schedule. Perhaps this weekend. Then again, there's snow and the skiing's been pretty good. Then again, again, I'm out of everything but about 2/3 of a 30 of High Life. Something's gotta give...

Bavarian Pride

2007-01-27T17:28:00.000-05:00

Hey Chaps, I just finished bottling an Oktoberfest and thought I would include the recipe. The last two batches I've brewed (IPA and this Oktob.) have turned out really well. This one especially is nice and clear. We'll see how it tastes in a couple of weeks. I think the clarity on this batch was improved by having a better cold break and letting it sit a week longer than usual in the secondary. I also got to try out the new auto-siphon which is crazy easy considering how much i suck at regular siphoning. Anyway, here's the recipe.

1 Can Cooper's Lager Kit
1 Can Alexander's Pale "Kicker"
3 lbs. Munton and Fison Amber Dry Malt
1/2 lb German Light Crystal
1/4 lb Belgian Special B
2 oz Tettnang Hops
1 oz Tett. for the finish
Munich Lager Liquid yeast.

Pretty straight forward prep. The recipe calls for using either the dry yeast in the cooper's lager kit or the Munich liquid. I love liquid yeasts (especially in women - that's for you, sherman) so I just went with that. My gravities were pretty close to what was expected (O.G. 1.063-1.070) and my final was 1.021. 1 more thing - I tried oxy absorbing bottle caps this time just to see if they make a difference. I'm still saving up for a kegerator and hoping Uncle Sam is kind to me come tax season.

Paul

Beer in the News

2007-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

NYTimes Ales of the Times article on brown ales. Thought I'd share.

Back in Business

2007-01-20T09:52:00.000-05:00

So, hoseheads, first I would like to appologize for my lack of attention paid to the blog. I have let myself get distracted by school and whatnot and now realize the errors in my ways, I am back in business.

I had a very productive December in the brewing department, got a counterflow chiller up and running ( I love it, it's definitely the way to chill if your doing full size boils) and Katie (in her wonderful promotion of brewaj and generosity) gave me a 10 gallon brew kettle with a spigot so I now can boil the whole batch and don't need to siphon (see photo). I also got some recipe kits for my b-day from katie and my folks, so I've got plenty to keep me busy for now. I just bottled a spiced winter ale that tasted pretty good at bottling time and I've got a dark cherry stout in the secondary that needs to be bottled soon.

I've got a couple of things I'm thinking of starting in the near future. The first is to get a more substantial mini-mash method (gz I may be picking your brain about this sometime soon). The second is to start into the wine making. I don't think I'll need much more equipment, it just takes a lot longer from what I hear, so I guess I had better get started if I want to drink it any time soon. If anyone's got any wine tips, or a good way to make a mash tun on the cheap if I'm just using it for the specialty grains, let me know.

Later hoseheads, and happy brewing!

Help

2007-01-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

So my beer is going to make its public debut at a Contradance this Friday here at the law school. I was short on time, and the only stuff I have ready is the Goat Scrotum. Needless to say, or perhaps not needless to say, Goat Scrotum is well and good in some settings, but not this one. Any thoughts on what I could call it? It's a ginger porter. And mighty tasty if you ask me.

'Rator Ready

2006-12-06T22:33:00.000-05:00

Finally kegged my all-grain IPA today. By the time I bottled a six-pack for posterity, and allowed my full siphoning ineptitude to manifest itself (I've asked Santa for an auto-siphon), I only got about 3.5 gallons in the keg. I don't think I had much more than about 4.5 gallons of wort to begin with. In hindisght, that would explain why my OG was right on even though I really didn't sparge well. And by well, I mean at all.

In any case, it tastes great warm and uncarbonated, so I think it's going to be excellent by the time I get around to drinking it for real. Hopefully that'll be this weekend, before finals start. Or maybe I shouldn't be hoping for a 3.5 gallon supply of beer situated awfully close to my bed until after finals. Time will tell...

Fermentations

2006-12-03T15:54:00.000-05:00

Brewed yesterday, against my better judgement. I'm in the throes of a take-home exam for my Contracts class and really probably did not have the time to spare. Sucks. But brewing went without incident, I still made progress on my exam, and my fermentor's happily bubbling away here in my kitchen. If all goes according to plan, I'll have Goat Scrotum by Christmas break.

5.5lbs Dark liquid extract
1lb crystal (I think it was 60, but I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter.)
1/4lb black patent malt
1/4lb roasted barley
1.5oz Uk Fuggle pellets (boiling)
.5oz Uk Fuggle pellets (finishing)
1c brown sugar
3c corn sugar
2tsp gypsum
~4oz minced fresh ginger
Wyeast British Ale

Full volume boil
OG - 1.052

Charlie Papazian on Basic Brewing Video

2006-11-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

Just watched a great interview with Charlie Papazian on Basic Brewing Video. I recommend it if you have a sec.

Extra Special Goat Scrotum

2006-11-04T19:41:00.000-05:00

I recently made a trip to my *new* local homebrew store. It's up in Barre, about 40 minutes away. My friend Josh, whom, incidentally, I have invited to join the Hose Heads, showed me where it is. Not a bad shop at all, although I'm told it's sometimes staffed by people with little or no brewing knowledge.

In any case, I went intending to get ingredients for a porter. I settled on Charlie Papazian's Goat Scrotum Ale (Sherman, for whatever reason, "goat" and "scrotum" make me think of you). It's an extract beer with all sorts of crazy stuff in it, including a pound of corn sugar, brown sugar, and molasses.

I also picked up some stuff for an all-grain extra special bitter. Not sure when I'll get to brew next, but hopefully soon. Maybe even next weekend.

BD, did your fermentation issues ever resolve themselves? Sherm, how's your bottle conditioning coming?

Booked my plane ticket

2006-10-20T02:34:00.000-04:00

dudes, I'll be in MSP from Dec 28th-Dec 31st if any of you are around. Would love to see you, relax, and have a homebrew.

Bottling Question

2006-10-19T16:26:00.000-04:00

Do you guys prefer cleaning your bottles with a wash/heat cycle in the dishwasher, or do you just sterilize and drip dry, or both?

Post-Christmas visit

2006-10-15T23:23:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking of coming to Minneapolis on my way back to Seattle after christmas (28th-31st ish of Dec.) Will any of you guys be around/in town then?

Round the Horn IPA

2006-10-15T21:31:00.000-04:00

Here's the IPA I brewed last weekend. I got the recipe from my homebrew store.

6 lbs British Light Malt Extract
2 lbs Munton's Light Dry Malt
1/4 lb German Light Crystal Malt
1/4 lb Dextrin Malt
1.75 oz Chinook Hops (Boiling)
1 oz Willamette Hops (Finishing)
1.75 oz Columbus Hops (Dry-Hoppaj)
London III Ale Yeast (Liquid)
1 oz Gypsum.

Everything was pretty standard except that I decided to add gypsum to this recipe ala the recipe in Charlie's book. I thought his sad to add 2 oz, so I thought I would add only 1 oz so as not to screw up the batch. Turns out his was 2 tbsps...hmmm. So far so good, the initial gravity was 1.062. I racked to the secondary after three days so I could add the columbus (whole) in the hop bag. The AA content was ~15% (which seems high) but I couldn't get 1.75 oz in anyway because it wouldn't fit through the freaking carboy hole. So I settled for about 1oz, which will be good enough. I'll let you know how it turns out in the end.

Best IPA I've ever made...

2006-10-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

Just racked my all-grain IPA over to the secondary. This is going to be a great beer. I stole a taste from the hydrometer cylinder, and it's mighty fine. Good color, consistency, and mouthfeel, too. It'll be in the secondary for a bit for a little dry-hoppaj. Pretty pumped.

The Sherminator

2006-10-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

I'd like to welcome Sherman to the club. Here's to brewing. Let us know how it goes, Sherman.

Graham Goes All Grain

2006-10-01T14:35:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to brewing again and took the all grain plunge with Northern Brewer's Chinook IPA (extract version). It was also the first time I'd tried a full-volume boil. It was a bit of a shitshow there for a little bit, but things seemed to work out ok in the end. Took me a while to mop the floors and wipe down the wall, though.

I followed the simple mash instructions on NB's site. In the first encouraging development of the day, my mash temperature was right on. It stayed between 158 and 153 for the full, hour-long mash. I had a hard time getting the grain bed up to the mash-out temp because I ran out of space in the tun (thus the need to mop), and I'm not at all convinced that I sparged very well (NB calls for a more complex technique called fly sparging; I went with the quick and easy batch sparge). I was expecting to be way low on my OG. Surprisingly, I ended up with 1.052, which is right where I was supposed to be. I think I'm a little shy of 5 gallons, but if the gravity's on, I'm not too worried about it. It's fermenting like crazy right now.

We'll see how the beer turns out, but all in all, I think things went well. I don't think I will convert completely to all grain any time soon. My makeshift set-up worked ok, but I can see where it would be waaay easier with more specialized equipment. It also took about twice as long to brew, which was fine for yesterday, but I don't have that kind of time all that often. I can say I've done it now, and hopefully soon I can say I've done it sucessfully.

I had a bunch of pictures, but something happened with my camera and now they're gone. All I have left is this one pic of the bubbling fermentor. I've got some dry-hopping to do, so it won't be drinkable for several more weeks. Still haven't gotten my CO2 tank filled, so I wouldn't be able to keg yet anyway.

Less fun than bottling...

2006-09-02T19:02:00.000-04:00

So I've had my plastic fermentor for more than a year and a half now. It's served me well, but it's strating to yellow and it takes more and more bleach to get the smell of the last batch out of it. As you know, I've been thinking about going all grain ever since I saw my neighbor Bob make a batch. I followed, more or less, Charlie Papazian's instructions on how to make a ver simple mash/lauter tun out of my old fermentor and my priming bucket. For the first step, I drilled about 3 zillion little holes in the bottom of the fermentor. It took forever and was way tedious. I'll post more pictures of the whole setup when I actually get around to mashing/brewing. That might be next weekend, or maybe the weekend after that. This whole law school thing has been exhausting. And a lot of work.

Anyhow, here's my new lauter tun. Fast, cheap, and easy. Well, not really fast or easy, but cheap.

VT, baby.

2006-08-26T00:20:00.001-04:00

So here I am in Vermont. I have not yet met another homebrewer, but I do know that they exist. I also know that there's a shop around here somewhere, I just don't know where.

And, to again illustrate the pitfalls of owning your own CO2 tank, I have to drive almost 40 minutes to get mine filled before the draft system is operational again.

I'll be brewing again once I get my budget figured out; maybe as early as next week.

Haven't heard. Any of you been doing anything brewing-wise?

Micro-Stills

2006-07-30T22:32:00.000-04:00

The July issue of GQ has an article on small distilleries, mostly in the Pacific Northwest, that have popped up much in the same way as the microbreweries of the early 80s. Paul, you should check some of those things out. I don't have the article in hand, but it named a bunch of very small commercial stills. Very cool.

More on the mashing thing

2006-07-29T10:41:00.000-04:00

Found this website this morning. Gives a good picture overview of the all-grain process. BD, this is similar to Bob's setup. Looks like it'd be pretty cheap to set up, minus the big brew kettle thing. It's amazing how light his wort ended up! And with a 1.055 OG! I just don't think that's possible with extract.

Target has a 7 gallon beverage cooler for about $40. I wonder if one could use a square cooler rather than one of the round ones... Seems like those are generally cheaper. This all-grain thing is looking more and more doable...

Mini-mash

2006-07-29T01:25:00.000-04:00

BD and I had a conversation today about mini-mashing. I know Papzian talks about it some, and every Clone Brews or Beer Captured recipe lists the ingredients for mini-mash versions of the same beer. Here's a link I found. Pretty straightforward, but a couple good tips on how to keep it simple. A lot of the other discussions I've found, such as those on Northern Brewer, get quite complex. I don't think half the shit they talk about really matters in a 5 gallon batch, especially when we're talking a partial mash.

Anyhow, BD, keep us posted on your progress. I'm interested to hear...and eager to get back brewing myself. One question I failed to ask the admissions office at Vermont was the location of the nearest homebrew store...

Hosed...

2006-07-28T13:20:00.000-04:00

I realize this is off topic, but it's about the Brewers getting hosed, so it's somewhat related. Awful trade today. Screws the brewers and makes life difficult for the mariners. I was hoping we'd ship Carlos Lee to the twinkies instead...

Homebrew Competition

2006-07-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

Dudes,
Some of you may have seen this advertised on TV, but Sam Adams is having a "LongShot" Competition for homebrewers. You send in 4 bottles of your favorite homebrew recipe between August 1st and 18th and the lucky two homebrew winners get their brew mass produced and sold by Sam Adams. On top of this you get a free trip to the big beer competition in Colorado if you're one of the top five and $5000 if you're one of the top two. I'm thinking of sending in my hoppy husky, maybe the cherry wheat, but I think Sam Adams already makes one of those. I wish I had known about this sooner, but better late than never. Check out the Sam Adams website for details.
Good luck my fellow hose heads!

Nova Scotia

2006-07-21T15:44:00.000-04:00

Hey dudes. I'm in Nova Scotia at the moment. I had a great lunch in a brew pub here in Halifax earlier today, and I'm on my way to take a tour of North America's oldest brewery. I'll post more when I have a chance. Right now, I gotta get on this tour so we can batten down the hatches for some tropical storm that's bearing down on us right now. I'm not too good on the metric conversion thing, but I know that 70kmh winds equals about 45mph winds. Hope the tent holds up...

kegging equipment

2006-07-14T13:27:00.000-04:00

I'm looking into getting some kegging equipment. Time to make the next step. I'm talking to some guy on craigslist about a portable co2 system that he is selling for $200. Still trying to get the details from him, but he says it comes with 2 5lb co2 tanks. graham, what does your system involve? I brewed a hef on the 4th and I'll write out the recipe later today. catch you later
Paul

Oh and there's this...

2006-07-06T23:42:00.000-04:00

Fine photography courtesy of Shannon Donald. Everything else courtesy of the newlyweds and their good friend Vino.

Left ya hanging

2006-07-06T23:34:00.000-04:00

Hey Paul
Sorry about that. Just got back to town and my computer. And my cell phone charger. Gald to hear the wort chiller is up and running. Just in time for summer. As for your water question, I just cool whatever I have in the kettle (usually about 3 gallons or so) with my chiller down to about 80-90F. Then I just used cold, filtered tap water (but only filtered because DC water tastes bad and makes you dumb) to bring the whole thing up to 5 gallons. If that didn't bring me down to pitching temperature, I usually didn't have long to wait.

up and running

2006-07-02T19:50:00.000-04:00

finally got the freakin' wort chiller up and running. The problem was my tubing was smaller than grahams (3/8") and the rubber garden hose I got was crappy and hard-ish and didn't clamp very well. So I bought a smaller diameter hose, put a plastic sheath around the copper and then clamped the hose to that. Seems to work well. Should be brewing some hef either tomorrow/tuesday or next weekend. I will keep you posted.

wort chiller

2006-07-01T18:06:00.000-04:00

So I bought an adapter (really easy to find, turns out) and hooked everything up but my copper tubing is too small to be snuggly clamped with my hose so it leaks. I put some plastic tubing around the copper and then put the hose on that...but again, still leaking. How high to you guys turn up the tap and any ideas on how to stop the leaking? I have 3/8" piping with my hose.
paul

Shout Out

2006-06-17T17:36:00.000-04:00

A hearty booyah to our SCRC counterparts for a job well done in Duluth this morning.

Slab.

Neighbor Bob

2006-06-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

Went to my neighbor's house yesterday to sample a nut brown he made a few weeks ago. Very tasty. One critique I have of my own beers is that they tend to be quite malty, in taste, mouthfeel, or both. Wasn't the case with this beer at all. Which is bad. Bad because it was an all-grain batch. Now that I've been exposed to the all-grain process and its results, I can see all-grain brewing somewhere in my future. Hopefully I can stave off its advances until I'm more financially secure, and, say, have a place to live.

Any Sign of Sherman?

2006-06-14T20:21:00.000-04:00

I remember some drunken conversation about how he was going to buy some brewing gear, but haven't heard of anything since then.

Long Time, No Post

2006-06-14T15:15:00.000-04:00

Dudes, sorry for my recent hiatus from the posting, it's been a bit hectic with the honeymoon and house-buying (closing tomorrow). As for the brewing, I recently started my last batch before the move. It's a clone of Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. It was a bit more involved than my previous brews, I had to toast 1/2 lb. of oatmeal beforehand and put it in the mash. I feel like I was a bit rushed in my sparging, so I hope I got all of the surags and flavors out of it. I feel like I need a better method for straining and sparging, it just seems like I either am not getting enough of the sugar out, or I let too much of the ground up husks in...
I'll be apprenticing at an 11 gal. all grain mash in a couple of weeks, so that should be fun, maybe I'll pick up some tips there. As for you question Paul about SG readings, I've been thinking of building a new apparatus that will essentially be a metal cage in which the hydrometer will rest. The cage will have some sort of wire handle attached so that it can be lowered directly into the carboy until the hydrometer floats. This way, syphoning and the accompanying waste of good beer/wort will not be necessary (patent pending...). I haven't gotten around to making it yet, but it seems like it could work well.
Anyway, the stout is looking good, I'll probably rack it into the secondary fermenter in the next couple of days.
Later hoseheads.

Relax, and have a homebrew

2006-06-09T01:57:00.000-04:00

Can't remember if I told you guys already, but you should look up "relax and have a homebrew" in the index of the book.

mmm beer

2006-06-09T01:49:00.000-04:00

Dudes, here is the red amber I brewed about a month ago. It tastes better and better the longer I wait...but I still have about 30 left. yikes.

Recent lessons learned

2006-06-07T10:17:00.000-04:00

As I was getting ready to leave DC, I had a bunch of beer in kegs that I wanted to get rid of. There was no way it was going to store well over the summer, and it sure wasn't going to transport well back to Wisconsin. In my haste to get rid of the beer, I learned some good lessons:

1) Better to make sure your keg is empty before you try to fill it again.

I had a bunch of dudes over a month or more ago to drink beer, eat meat, and otherwise be dudely. I was serving homebrew from the 'rator, and at one point one guy came down and declared one of the kegs kicked. Sweet. No prob. Go to the auxillary. Fast forward a couple weeks to Graham getting ready for his going-away BBQ. I went to rack a modified Hoppy Husky IPA to the keg and lo! The keg still had about 2 gallons of beer in it. Balls. I needed to get the IPA in the keg so it would go away before I left, but I really didn't want to waste the brown that was in the keg. So I tried to bottle it. Long story short, you really can't bottle a carbonated beer sans a counterflow filler without three things: a) a huge mess and 2) really flat beer. So that sucked.

2) It takes longer to chill 5 gallons than one (i.e. me) might think.

Once I cleaned up the mess of the bottling fiasco, I had less than 24 hours for the beer to get cold and carbonate before the party. I thought I could get by with the kegerator turned up to the max and near-constant agitation to facilitate C02 dissolution. It worked ok. Thankfully, the IPA was really tasty, so I and others were willing to overlook a low carbonation : temperature ratio.

Wisconsin

2006-06-06T17:46:00.000-04:00

So I made it home. After a frantic couple of weeks, I finally left DC this past Thursday, and made it to BD's later that night. I left behind a few brews, and helped myself to a #10. Wasn't sure what it was, but it was good. BD is good at making his beers clear, crisp, and heady. I like it. Arrived in Ashland on Friday night.

Turns out my parents' neighbor is a homebrewer, and today was a brew day for him. I went over and watched him brew. He's an all-grain brewer. It was interesting to watch the process. It was the first time I've ever watched another brewer brew any batch, let alone an all grain batch. Bob, my neighbor, was also kind enough to give me a 7.5 gallon aluminum brew pot. It's more than twice the size of my current kettle, and while aluminum, will allow me to boil full batches all at once. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

And lastly, we've had a major drought of brew-related postings. Get to it. I know we all, myself included, are drinking far more than this blog would indicate...

Your favorite what?

2006-06-06T17:32:00.000-04:00

no title needed

2006-06-02T02:15:00.000-04:00

and here's one of my favorite gay couple.

Laugh it up!

2006-06-02T02:05:00.000-04:00

Dudes, so I haven't posted in a while. Work is fucking crazy. I finished my first batch, but still haven't taken any pictures yet. I will hopefully do that this weekend. I wanted to leave you with this picture and I'll post the rest once I've messed with the red-eye and cropped etc. Kisses,

Paul

Mothballed

2006-05-23T17:19:00.000-04:00

Had to mothball all my beer gear for the summer. Everything's all packed up, including the kegerator. I'll have to live vicariously through everbody else's brewing. And I can spend some time more thoroughly exploring the notable commercial beers available in the Upper Midwest, looking for new brewing ideas.

Another Website

2006-05-09T17:46:00.000-04:00

This organization called Here's to Beer, Inc. started taking out some full-page ads in the newspapers on Capitol Hill. I decided to check out their website, and wasn't disappointed.

www.herestobeer.com

I intend to check out the beer pairings section more extensively, and also the "beertails" recipe. Ordinarily, beer is plenty tasty. But I've been known to imbibe a Black Velvet or a couple Radlers.

Immersion Chiller

2006-05-03T10:44:00.000-04:00

Paul -

I found the email I sent to BD when I built my chiller. Here's a pic, and a description of what I did.

"i also made our immersion chiller yesterday. pretty simple. i bought
10 feet of coiled, 1/2 inch, soft copper tubing and two hose clamps
for a total of $14. i also bought a length of washing machine hose,
but i ended up not being able to use it. i took what ended up to be
the outside diameter, and thought it was inside diameter; it didn't
fit over the copper. so i found a length of old garden hose in the
basement, cut it half, and clamped it on to the copper. we'll see if
it works. a couple things i'm a little apprehensive about are that
it's only 10 feet of tube instead of what looks like a lot more in
commercial chillers, and it's 1/8 of an inch bigger than what i've
seen recommended."

Despite those surface area concerns, this thing works pretty well. I can chill 3 gallons in 10 to 15 minutes.

Bryan's chiller has a lot more copper, of smaller diameter. Here's a pic and the description he sent me.

"I built my cooler yesterday, it was a bit more expensive (~$25)than what you
did, but I've got 25' of copper, so I think it'll work pretty well. I actually
bought a kit for installing a dehumidifier or ice maker (~$12) and then some
plastic hose and appropriate couplings, the guy at Home Depot was very helpful,
he practically built it for me."

Measuring Specific Gravity

2006-05-02T01:54:00.000-04:00

Well dudes, I finally brewed my first batch of beer on saturday. It took for freakin' ever for the wort to cool down, so hopefully it's okay. How do you guys usually withdraw beer to measure the specific gravity (from the carboy)? do you siphon or use a turkey baster or something less sexy? Oh, my spoon slipped into the boiling wort and splashed some on my stomach. I have two sweet burn marks. I feel like a man.

Mmmmm. Belgian fries.

2006-05-01T13:57:00.000-04:00

Spent the afternoon up in Baltimore yesterday, hanging out with Stacy and a coworker. We first checked out some sailboat races in the inner harbor. Then we went to this awesome microbrewery near Penn Station. I had a Green Peppercorn Belgian Trippel, apparently named so because it has green peppercorns in it. I don't know what flavors peppercorns may impart. I just know it was really tasty, beautifully blond, crisp with a hint of spicyness, and that I was a little tipsy when I stood up after having just one 25cl glass. Weighs in at about 10% ABV.

They also had these fries. Ooooh those fries. Shoestring fries, cooked in truffle oil, soaked in garlic and rosemary, accompanied by fresh mayonnaise. So good. Thankfully, I can still taste them, despite having brushed my teeth more than once since then. Unfortunately, everyone I encounter can taste them, too.

Here's the website:

http://www.belgianbeer.com/

Ded Rater Hefeweizen

2006-04-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

That's what I decided to call that hefeweizen I screwed up (Ded Rater is retarded backwards).

Since I started kegging, I haven't figured out how to keep a couple bottles of whatever I make to set aside, or to take with me, like to a party or something. So this time I thought I'd try these carbonation drops. They're like little cough drops of priming sugar. The directions say to use one per 12oz bottle and two per 750ml bottle. I had 500ml flip tops. I tried to break them in half, but those things are really hard and not brittle at all. So I used two per bottle, and I'm hoping I don't have any bottle bombs. That'd suck. (Incidentally, I saw an episode of Basic Brewing Video where they accidentally put 2 drops in a 12oz bottle. It didn't explode; it wasn't even overcarbonated).

I kegged the rest of it. I'm trying to accelerate the force-carbonation process, so hopefully it'll be ready to drink in the next few days. Better yet, hopefully it'll be ready to drink tomorrow. I have some dudes coming over for a Manfest. BBQ, beer, bourbon, cigars, and video games.

Good Friday = Good Brewday

2006-04-14T19:45:00.000-04:00

In an unforseen act of compassion, my boss let us out early today. So instead of doing any of the millions of other things I could/should have been doing, I brewed.

This is going to be pretty much the same as the bachelor party IPA, except, because I'm retarded, I didn't have the pound of crushed Crystal 20 BD's recipe calls for. So here's what I had:

6.6 lbs Muntons light syrup
3 oz whole Amarillo hops (bittering)
1 oz " (flavor)
White Labs British Ale yeast (WL005)

I'll give it a week or so in the primary, rack to the secondary, and dryhop with 4 oz whole Amarillo hops, and let it sit there until I have an open keg. As I write this, though, I'm thinking I might want to use 2 oz hops in the secondary, and save the last 2 oz for the keg. I kind of liked having the beer constantly in contact with the hops. We'll see.

This was probably my fastest brew ever. From start through cleanup, it was about 2 hours even.

ever need something?

2006-04-13T15:08:00.000-04:00

if you ever need anything that your store doesn't have, I can look out here and see if we have it. Not like I see you guys that often, but with the wedding coming up I could pick something up for you if you'd like. I can't wait to make a kegerator...

Mmmmmm...

2006-04-13T13:15:00.000-04:00

...affordable kegging equipment. $165 isn't bad. Also, with the secondhand CO2 tank, you won't have to worry about using an exchange to get it filled. Food for thought.

Incidentally, this shop is owned by the authors of Clone Brews and Beer Captured.

On the website, they have the recipes from both those books in the form of prepackaged kits. No more multistate, 3 hour goosechases for goddamn invert sugar and Belgian candi.

I've found some of these interesting...

2006-04-12T20:25:00.000-04:00

...if not helpful and informative.

This is the site for a podcast that I listen to once in a while. These guys are kind of doofy, advocate some questionable techniques, and sometimes lack the vocabulary to effectively describe what they're doing or tasting, but they like to experiment, and they like good beer, and good food, and it's always good to hear how other people approach the brewing. It's easy to pick and choose which episode you might want to hear. Also, they're just getting rolling on a Basic Brewing Video podcast. Their first few episodes give good tips for a 6 pack experimental batch.

This website has another podcast. These guys are more of the fratboy idiot types, with weird top-40 radio voice distortions, and top 10 lists from email forwards I first got in 1997. If you skip ahead through that first hour of crap (it's often a 3 hour show), you can get to some high-quality content. They got Charlie Papazian on the show for a 2 hour interview back in December. If you're iTunes savvy, it's easy to find this (and the show above) in the podcast directory. Otherwise, you can weed through the archives for the Sunday Live Show.

Credit

2006-04-10T22:29:00.000-04:00

You know, really I deserve all the credit for the beer brewing craze. I did give Bryan the first beer brewing kit :) Wait a minute..... I am responsible for many hours of "beer talk" and hundreds of dollars spent on "carboys", not the mention the millions of brain cells that are dead.....I take it back. I want no credit. I'm only going to drink Bud Light.

Katie

A New Recruit

2006-04-10T09:04:00.000-04:00

Fellahs, we have a new recruit. Sherman is getting into brewing, now we have our financing for the brew pub...some one that is already making money...

In a word...

2006-04-09T23:28:00.000-04:00

...I'm retarded. I guess that's two words. But they're true nonetheless.

So I went to the beer store today and got ingredients for a hefeweizen, and the ingredients for another hoppy huskie IPA in an effort to plan ahead and save a trip to the store. Even as of the ride home, I was unsure of what I was actually going to brew. After consulting with Paul, I was set to go with the IPA. This is where I went mental. I was all relaxed, havin' a homebrew, getting my boil on, and what do I do? I load up my brewpot with the wheat extract. Damn. Guess I'll have the hef instead of the IPA.

My thought was to keg whatever batch I brewed today, but upon further consideration, I think I'll bottle the hef once it's done. I think wheat beers are much more pleasant out of the bottle than on tap anyway. And hopefully I'll have the chance to brew one night this week or this coming weekend at the latest.

I have some ideas for how I want the IPA to go. It'll be my frist attmept in a while at finetuning a recipe. Looking forward to a discussion on hopping options and perhaps some additions/substitutions in the specialty grains. I have a couple I ideas I want to check with you dudes.

off topic, but exciting

2006-04-08T18:50:00.000-04:00

don't look now but the brewers are 5-0...

I should mention...

2006-04-08T10:12:00.000-04:00

If there are other links you want me to add to the right hand side of the blog, let me know and I'll put them up. Paul, I kind of like that beer ratings website you put linked to in your last post. BD, maybe we could put up a Things Beer or Northern Brewer Link? Keep an eye out for other sites you want to share with the rest of us.

42 Metric Beers and a Couple a' Hose Heads

2006-04-07T23:23:00.000-04:00

this was the worst beer i've had in my life. imagine burned foldger's coffee disguised as beer.

DC's new beer place

2006-04-07T20:57:00.000-04:00

A new beer place just opened in Georgetown. It's in the basement of a sweet pizzeria. I'm looking forward to testing it out. 100 beers, 17 on tap. Sounds like something I could get into.

Beer bottle labels

2006-04-07T00:19:00.000-04:00

I forgot to tell you guys that avery makes labels that you can stick on your beer bottles to make them look sexy. This is one I designed when we brewed a batch of porter. It's a nerdy inside science joke and not worth explaining....

Pictures

2006-04-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

I got the pictures back from Snapfish. I'll email the link in the morning.

Katie needs a draught system

2006-04-06T20:28:00.000-04:00

BD, that's how you have to couch your arguments. This is in Katie's best interests that you get a draught system. Just remind her how much worse it could be. You could be trying to buy, I dunno, drugs, or a stripper or PEZ dispensers on Ebay or something like that.

That said, it's time to get you as informed as possible on this kegging stuff as soon as possible. This is the guy from whom I purchased my kegging gear. Because I had a good experience with him, I took the liberty of requesting one of his catalogs on your behalf. You should get it in about a week or so. He's got all sorts of setups for sale, with any combination of kegs, tanks, lines, couplers, and faucets you could want.

You mentioned how you were thinking about going with this kind of setup, which I think is an excellent idea. It's expandable, and versatile. If there's one regret I have about my system, it is that I can only fit corny kegs in there; no commercial beers (that's where the financial benefits of a draught system really kick in).

Lastly, if you do end up buying a house with a large pantry off the kitchen, check the pics at the end of this post on the Northern Brewer forum. That, would be awesome....

Draft Systems

2006-04-06T12:58:00.000-04:00

So, I'm pondering my impending decision to install a draft system whereever I move next year. It's going to be done I'm sure, but I don't know exactly what kind I'll be installing. I'm leaning toward a chest freezer style keggerator for the obvious benefits of being able to house several kegs, and large comercial kegs. Let me know if any of you has any advice/finds anything interesting out there in this regard.

Good day, relax and have a homebrew.

Tickle our senses

2006-04-06T12:53:00.000-04:00

after seeing that photo, i was sitting here thinking that it would be great if you hose heads could attach an audio clip so that all the good folks out there could hear your great canadian accents greeting them. and after stumbling around this blog thing, i think you might actually be able to do that in your profile... attach an audio clip that is. so yeah, get on that. i want to hear "good day, eh", "take off, hoser" and that mind control hockey tune!

I feel like a 12 year old girl writing a diary...

2006-04-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

It's funny that you set this up because I was just thinking yesterday about sending beer recommendations to you guys (and maybe the lazy brew-bitch lande). I just picked up a 6er of pete's rally cap ale. nice summer beer. i don't know if you meant to do this, but graham, you only "drafted" your last two posts and they didn't make the official blog dealy.

Bachelor Party Postmortem

2006-04-06T12:22:00.000-04:00

5 lbs of Gummy Bears and 5 Gallons of Hoppy Huskie hombrew later, everyone spent the day of his arrival home recovering from the weekend - unpacking, sleeping, and pooping. Twice. I'm led to believe that pictures from BDfest will be done and available online in the next 24 hours. I'll be sure to post as soon as I get them.

For those of you who may be interested, here's the recipe I used for the batch of beer we spent most of our time drinking (credit to BD for the basis of this recipe) -

1lb Crystal 20 (crushed)
8lbs Montmellick Light Syrup Extract
4oz Amarillo Hops Plugs (bittering)
2oz Amarillo Whole Hops (dryhopping)
WhiteLabs London Ale yeast

Steeped crushed grain at 155° for 30 mins; sparged. Added water to make 3.5 gallons, boiled, added extract, brought to boil again, added 4oz hop plugs, and boiled 60 minutes. Cooled and strained to plastic fermentor. Increased volume to 5 gallons, pitched yeast, aerated, and fermented 10 days.

I didn’t have an available secondary carboy, so I dryhopped in the keg. I tied a grainbag full of the whole hops to the diptube before I racked over to the keg, sealed, pressurized, and left the keg at room temperature for about 18 days before I moved it to the kegerator for carbonation.

It was a doggone tasty beer, if you ask me. If I were to modify it, I may either add more hops at different points during the boil, or spread that 4oz over a more diverse schedule.

Also, I’m afraid I may not have gotten full fermentation, which I suspect may explain the vociferous volleys of man-scent mortars that set the tone for much of the weekend’s conversation. I’ll be sure to pay better attention to the gravity readings next time I make it – which I suspect will be soon.

Good Day, Eh?

2006-04-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Good day, eh? And welcome to our blog.

Here, we will be discussing some of our favorite topics: back bacon, and beer. Well, maybe not so much the back bacon. But definitely the beer. We're beer enthusiasts and avid, but far from expert, homebrewers. We'll use this space to convey our impressions, experiences, and thoughtful, if not coherent, malted barley-induced musings. But right now, we're still working out what it is that we want to say.

So grab a six a' your favorite col' ones, eh, and come back when we've actually got something to talk about.